Marriott Bonvoy has brought back its Reward-a-Friend program, through which existing members can refer friends to the program and both parties can earn bonus points. The new member must complete stays over the course of a year in order for everyone to earn points.
This isn’t the most exciting deal out there, but it’s one worth considering if you have friends that aren’t yet Bonvoy members and have upcoming hotel stays planned.
How Does the Marriott Bonvoy Reward-a-Friend Program Work?
The Marriott Bonvoy Reward-a-Friend program gives both the existing and new members bonus points once the new member signs up and completes some stays.
To refer friends or family, existing members can head to the landing page and send email invitations to up to five people. The referrer also needs to provide the invitee with their full name and Bonvoy number, so the invitee can include them when they sign up – otherwise, nobody will receive extra points.
After the invitee signs up, both parties will earn 2,000 Bonvoy points when the new member completes a stay in their first year as a member, up to a maximum of five stays.
Therefore, the new member stands to earn up to 10,000 points through this offer, while the existing member can earn up to 50,000 points if all five of their invitees complete five stays each.
It’s important to note that a stay is defined as one or more consecutive nights at participating properties, and that both cash and award redemptions count. The stays must be completed within one year of joining the program, so there’s plenty of time to maximize the offer.
Keep in mind that multiple nights under a single booking counts as a single stay, and consecutive nights at a single property will count as one stay, even if you make separate bookings per night.
Therefore, if your friend has a planned stay in a city for multiple nights, you may want to suggest that they do some hotel hopping to maximize their earning.
Each person may refer up to five people per calendar year, which means that you can technically refer five people between now and the end of 2023, and then five more in 2024.
There’s no expiry date posted for this promotion, so it could be something that Marriott Bonvoy offers for a brief period of time, or it could be in place for quite a while. Therefore, it’s best to refer first and ask questions later if you have anyone that can stand to benefit.
Is the Marriott Bonvoy Reward a Friend Program a Good Deal?
This particular promotion is neither particularly lucrative, nor can it be classified as low-hanging fruit, since your friend actually needs to complete a stay for anyone to get any bonus points.
Each new member can only earn a bonus of 2,000 Bonvoy points on up to five stays. Even if an invitee were to stay at a number of properties over the course of the year, the earning is capped at 10,000 points through the Reward-a-Friend program, which won’t get them very far towards an aspirational redemption.
However, if you happen to have people in your life that aren’t yet Bonvoy members, it doesn’t hurt to have them use your invite link if they end up staying at a Marriott property. You may as well send them a referral link to your Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card while you’re at it.
In terms of the value proposition at stake, we value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.8 cents per point (CAD). If an existing member were to max out their side of the promotion, they’d earn $400 (CAD) worth of points by our metric.
Similarly, the invitee stands to gain around $16 (CAD) worth of points for their first five stays, or $80 (CAD) total.
Conclusion
Marriott Bonvoy‘s Reward-a-Friend program allows existing members to refer friends and family, and both sides can earn some extra points.
The invitee can earn an extra 2,000 Marriott Bonvoy points on each of their first five stays, up to a maximum of 10,000 points.
The referrer can earn 2,000 Bonvoy points on each of the invitees first five stays, and since they can invite five people, can stand to earn up to 50,000 points.
Again, this certainly isn’t an earth-shattering deal, but it’s worth taking advantage of if you know people who aren’t yet Marriott Bonvoy members and might spend five nights or more in hotels over the next year.
